Family

the Rift

[PRIVATE] Family

Knox Posts: 262

Outcast atk: 4 | def: 7.5 | dam: 6.5

Stallion :: Equine :: 17hh :: 7 Years [Tallsun] HP: 67.5 | Buff: NOVICE

Jen

08-22-2015, 10:19 PM (This post was last modified: 08-22-2015, 10:20 PM by Knox.)

image by deadair @ flickr.com</style>
round all the pieces up, but they just don't fit the same.</style>

Knox is desperate. He begins to think of himself as the hunter again, for at least the hunter is something he understands. But this lost soul, the maybe lover? He is a mystery to the stallion cloaked in black.

Manhattan begins to leave, but Knox doesn't notice. Even she knows what Knox doesn't; even she knows that he is in love with Aylin. She has known for a very long time, and just as she left then she begins to leave now. She leaves because she cannot bear to be around such love and know that it is so much stronger than what Knox feels for her. She is jealous and cruel. She does not want him to be happy with another, when she misses the hunter who fought and killed at her side.

Manhattan was bonded to a son of Mandrake. Still, there is a part of her that believes in those old ways. And so she stands at the hollow exit to the cave's firelit clearing as Knox struggles to put himself together.

He is about to lie. He doesn't know what to say to make Aylin understand that the pain she makes him feel is a good one, he doesn't understand it at all. And desperate as he is for a family once more, dying as he is for another chance at love after having so foolishly squandered so many firsts, he almost lies to Aylin.

He almost says he loves her, just so she will agree to this, this one thing that he begs of her. To become a mother, for his sake, and his love.

But Manhattan is not yet gone. And as jealous as she is, as recklessly emotional and as likely as she would be to rip out the jugular of any child born of her one companion, she cannot let Knox ruin this.

You love her, she tells him, her own heart breaking as rage spills out of it. She hates herself for her compassion. Go, love her.

Knox doesn't turn to watch her go. He doesn't waste any time. He brings himself back to Aylin, urges her to stand. He whispers what his companion insists is true, even if he is uncertain, himself.

"Aylin, I feel more for you than I thought possible. Hatta, she tells me this is love. And she has never lied to me," Knox says quietly, slowly. "Please, Aylin. If that is love, then let me show it."

And the distance grows shorter between them.

___

Her futile resistance is something that the murderer finds amusing. She dances before him like a blind puppet, so eagerly influence by her blind love of the descendant that carries him that now, when she truly cannot see, she cannot even recognize him.

What kind of love is that, Knox? the steel-hearted steel-coat murmurs into the depths of that mind as its true consciousness sinks farther and farther away. Apparently she has not forgotten who Knox is: she has simply forgotten that he can never truly be trusted. He may beg, he may plead, he may insist that no matter his face he is himself, but he will never be right. He will never remember how alone he never is.

“Aylin…” whispers the dark killer. His voice is tender; it sounds like the boy whom she loves, the one who led her so far from home. But it is the mind of the one who will abandon her here, blind and afraid, that truly speaks. That one word, that beautiful name, falls across her cheek like a broken promise. She asks what he is done but he will not say. It is not the murderer’s place to say.

“I love you too,” he says then, cruel, mocking. With only her ears, will she know it isn’t true? Will she know she is listening to an imposter?

But the words end with a bite. His teeth bare down on that perfect dark neck, splitting hairs and breaking flesh like a flower petal ripped, gently and horribly all at once. When the blood starts to drip, only then, does he let go. “Find your own way home, filly,” comes the dark voice--this time, nothing like Knox’s. “See what good light like this does you now.”

Now, she will know. Now she will know what Knox will never understand or remember: this one who blinds her tonight, this one who makes her bleed, will never be her light.

And then he is gone, a mere brush against her side, steel on black, as he departs. He could not be crueler to the descendant than this. This crime, this abandoning of a one true love unrecognized, is the most mortal of them all.

Sometime later, perhaps hours or days, Dovev lets the form be. Knox finds Manhattan and the pair reunite: little defective colt and his dog.

Where is Aylin? bonded asks.

Oh, she’s coming. Knox replies, unwitting. I think she just fell behind.

And in time, the rain begins its ceasing.

—

knox</style>
& manhattan</style>